Occupational health and safety news and guidance

A Liverpool bedding firm has been prosecuted after one of its employees had three fingers and a thumb cut off in machinery.

The 32-year-old worker
was trying to stop a quilt becoming entangled in a duvet-making machine
when the fingers and thumb on her right hand were struck by a blade.

Her employer, Downland Bedding Company Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found the injured
worker had not been given suitable training, and had been able to access
a dangerous part of the machine when it was still operating.

Downland Bedding Company Ltd. pleaded guilty to a breach of the Provision and Use
of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was fined £7,000 and
ordered to pay £5,876 in prosecution costs.